Posted on 05/31/2019 7:51:51 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The captain of a river cruise ship that collided with a tourist sightseeing boat in the Danube River in Budapest, causing it to capsize and sink, has been taken into custody by Hungarian police.
The captain, a 64-year-old Ukrainian identified only as Yuriy C., is suspected of endangering water transport leading to a deadly mass accident, according to The Associated Press, citing a police website.
Divers and rescue workers are still trying to find 21 people in the Danube River. At least seven people are dead, and seven were rescued. The craft had been carrying a South Korean tour group.
The smaller boat had 35 people aboard — 33 tourists and a Hungarian crew of two. All seven of the dead are South Korean, Budapest police say.
The tourists' boat, called the Mermaid, capsized within seconds of colliding with the long and low Viking Sigyn cruise ship. The first emergency call didn't reach police until 10 minutes later, officials said at a news conference Thursday.
The Viking Sigyn is a four-deck ship with 95 staterooms, according to Viking River Cruises. Video from the scene shows the two vessels drawing near each other as they approach the Margaret Bridge — and that the long ship's bow comes into contact with the smaller boat's rear quarter, sending it sideways.
Police in Budapest say they are investigating the incident in the context of a criminal proceeding, adding that they will rely on experts to determine whether any wrongdoing or error played a role in the catastrophe.
The collision took place on a scenic, busy stretch of the Danube near the Hungarian Parliament building and the Margaret Bridge. While some of the smaller boat's passengers were rescued, attempts to find more survivors or victims have been complicated by darkness, rain and strong currents.
Any survivors also would have to endure the river's cool water (currently around 60 degrees). The search for anyone who had been on the boat has now been extended far south of Budapest, officials said.
Some of the bodies that were recovered were pulled out of the water several miles south of the bridge where the incident occurred, according to a map released by the police.
The incident has left families in South Korea anxiously awaiting word about loved ones who were on the river trip. A 6-year-old girl who was traveling with her mother and grandparents is believed to be the youngest victim, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. In another case, a 31-year-old woman survived but her younger brother is missing, the agency says.
As the magnitude of the catastrophe reached South Korea, officials there mobilized to send help to Hungary.
"At an emergency meeting, President Moon Jae-in told officials to use all available diplomatic resources to expedite search and rescue efforts," NPR's Anthony Kuhn reported from Seoul. "Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will head an interagency task force and travel to Hungary."
Budapest police say the sunken ship has been found and that they plan to raise it from the riverbed.
I've seen that bridge many times- beautiful area.
Those long river cruise ships don't appear to be the most agile and maneuverable on the water....I wonder what the smaller craft's skipper was up to?
What a tragedy! No matter how serene and peaceful those cruises are, one should never forget that you are on the open water, and events can still occur. Somebody was not following basic right of way rules. This didn’t happen due to a storm or act of nature. So many deaths makes me wonder if anyone was wearing a safety vest. Not sure if they’re required in Hungary.
I saw the video on a boating blog. The Cruise ship just ran down the excursion boat from behind. A clear violation of international COLREGs (IMO). The overtaking vessel is responsible for avoiding the vessel being overtaken.
FWIW we just did this evening cruise on the Viking ‘Skirnir’ about a month ago. It’s a dinner cruise where the ship leaves the dock and then cruises up and down the Danube for an hour or so, before coming back to the dock for the night.
After a day of excursions the next day, it leaves for Amsterdam the next evening.
I was setting up on the forward terrace that night and saw a number of these small sightseeing boats cut across in front of the Skirnir trying to beat them underneath the Margit bridge, one of them so close in front of us that I could no longer see the boat at all.
That’s what happens when you play chicken with a 443’ long river cruiser.
Visibility could be an issue here. Any reports about warning signals? Also, the larger vessel is much less maneuverable than the smaller one. Lots of unanswered questions so far.
The video looks like the smaller boat was minding its own business when the big boat willy nilly plowed into the backside.
A three hour cruise....
Haven’t seen the video. I just saw a number of smaller boats cutting in front of the Viking ship trying to beat it through the channel under the Margit bridge.
In one case a boat that did this wasn’t traveling anywhere near the speed of the Viking ship and had to shear off because the Viking was overtaking it so fast.
I was just there 2 weeks ago on a similar boat. They may have had some on board, but there was no mention of life jackets at all.
Finally got to see the video.
We only see the time right before the collision. We don’t see, or at least I haven’t seen any video of what happened before that.
As I said, when we were doing that exact same cruise, I saw several small sightseeing boats that were running parallel to our ship, cut in front of us, trying to beat us through the Margit bridge portal. But in one case, they realized they couldn’t outrun us, and sheared back off before being run down.
Don’t know if this is what happened, but based on my personal experience, it’s certainly possible.
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